JF Ptak Science Books // Blog Bookstore

The New NSDAP Element in German Town Design (1934)

Deutsch Siedlungsausstellung, Munchen, 1934. Published: Geschaftsstelle der Ausstelllung, Munchen. Printed 1934. 9.5x7", 8pp.  Printed wrappers, with a decorative front wrapper.

• Offered with:

Deutsch Siedlungsausstellung, Munchen, 1934, Juni bis Oktober. 8.5x8", 14pp, with photos nearly every page.  

Provenance: Library of Congress, with their surplus stamp on the rear wrapper; also, there's a 6mm "LC" perforated stamp at the bottom of the front wrapper.

Architectural and town planning according to NSDAP demands. The two: $95  

Neither pamphlet is located in WorldCat/OCLC

Our Nation's Changing Skyline (1929)

The Nation's Changing Skyline, prepared for the Architectural and Allied Arts Exposition, New York, April 15 to 27, 1929. Published by Bethlehem Steel Company, 1929. 8x5", 22pp, including 15 full page illustrations (see sample, below).  Original thick wrappers, nicely decorated cover. Provenance: Library of Congress, with their surplus/duplicate rubber stamp on the rear cover.  Fine copy.  

WorldCat/OCLC locates only one copy (Hagley).  $125

 

An ABC of Chicago Urban Development (1936)

ABC. "Words and design by Arthur Bohnen, assistance of Elizabeth Blair, illustrations by Ethel Schacherer."  7x5", 26pp.

"This publication is distributed to its members by the National Association of Housing Officials." 1936--WorldCat   Only four copies located in WorldCat OCLC: Chicago PL, NYPL, Canadian Centre for Architecture, Columbia University.  Scarce. $100

"May [this book] help you to look for and to see in this city of ours more than you have ever seen before. May it assist you in making this  a better place in which to live, to the end that Chicagoans will not fear the memories of home they give their children."--preface.

Recreational Floor Coverings, 1938

Celotex Traffic Top, Manual of Information. "The Resilient Roof Surfacing Material that Transforms Flat Roofs into Playgrounds, Roof Terraces, Recreational Areas, Game Courts." The Celotex Corporation, Chicago, 1938.  11x8.5", 6pp, 7 plates, 6,6pp.  Bound in a heavy gvc binding with heavy decorated wrappers, and printed on heavy paper.  

Very nice production.  No copies located in WorldCat/OCLC. $75

 

 

The ELECTRIC Kitchen, in all of its Modern Color Fabulosity, 1938

Electric Kitchens, and How to Plan Them. An Aid to Architects, Builders and others Concerned with Kitchen Planning.

Published by the Modern Kitchen Bureau, NYC, 1938. 12x9", 24pp. Illustrations (including plans, diagrams, and color plates) throughout the publication. Printed on heavier matte paper, and bound with thick, stiff paper wrappers (quite an arresting cover!)

Provenance: Library of Congress, with their surplus/duplicate stamp on the rear cover and a small "Pamphlet Collection" rubber stamp in the upper right corner of the front wrapper.  $100

Only one copy of this book is located in WorldCat/OCLC (University New South Wales, 9632 miles away from where I am sitting).

What Bogey Walked On, Part IV

Tiles by Sparta, published by the Sparta Ceramic Co., East Sparta, Ohio, 1940. (Can I say "Sparta just one more time?) 11x8.5", 64pp, illustrations throughout the publication, several in full and gloriously fabulous color.  Printed on heavier matte stock, with stiff wrapper binding. Provenance: Library of Congress Pamphlet Collection, with the LC surplus/duplicate rubber stamp on the cover. (Also comes with two duplicates of the LC card catalog cards.  Very Good copy.  Lovely copy. Everything that you need to know, plus planning suggestions.  There are no copies of this title located in WorldCat OCLC. Very Good copy. $100

No doubt that in just about every b+w movie ever made some of the floors that folks walked on were very colorful. The studio floors of course wouldn't necessarily be so pretty, but the rooms in which the characters were supposed to occupy would've been--its just that we rarely see the floors in those movies in the pre-color days, and many of them could've looked like the floors in this catalog.  

 

Filling Up the Harbor: NYC, 1935

Liberty Landing, by Charles E. Palliser (architect) and Frederick W. Capon (Designer and Delineator), Jackson Heights, NYC, September 16, 1935. Offset printed from typed originals. 13x8.5", 5 leaves, with one original photograph (4x11"). With original wrappers (detached).  Provenance: Library of Congress, with their surplus/duplicate stamp on title page.  Good condition. $750

I recently uncovered an interesting, unpublished and probably not-acceptable engineering report to extend the ports capacity in the Hudson River at New York City--the ports of the  area being famously over-busy for a long period of time, especially right before World War II.  Charles Palliser and Frederick W. Capon presented a proposal in 1935 for a unification of the port and airport facilities to take care of the overcrowding and overworked problem.

What they came up with was Liberty Landing, a mile-long and half-mile-wide facility that nearly bumped into the Statue of Liberty (and hence its name).  The plan called for backfilling the “flats” that were just south of Jersey City, as “the natural formation of these were very favorable”, which meant that the airport-port combo would extend all the way into the harbor to the edge of the channel, which would put it further out than the Statue of Liberty, which would also be just hundreds of feet away from the end of the north runway.

Also attached to the backfill and new land would be a one-mile-long floating dock.  Oh my!

The floating island would also have vehicular tunnels that connected it to Staten Island and the Battery.  There were facilities for seaplanes, airplanes, railroads, dirrigbles, and trucks, plus a military installation, a custom’s house and the US Mail Service, so that all commerce would converge at this one point, which sounds interesting (for about 20 seconds). 

This is a good candidate for the “Better Left Undone” award for 1935.

As I look at the photograph of the aerial view of the plan it strikes me that if the designers increased the surface area by only 125% or so they could’ve connected the new facility with Governor’s Island AND Brooklyn, building a land bridge from Jersey City to Coney Island—a superbly bad idea to cap an already strongly bad idea. 

The report is called, simply, Liberty Landing, and published by the architect in Jackson Heights, NYC, 16 September 1935.  This is also the U.S. Copyright Deposit copy (accepted 10 October 1935), which is where the history of this project ends.

I recently uncovered an interesting, unpublished and probably not-acceptable engineering report to extend the ports capacity in the Hudson River at New York City--the ports of the  area being famously over-busy for a long period of time, especially right before World War II.  Charles Palliser and Frederick W. Capon presented a proposal in 1935 for a unification of the port and airport facilities to take care of the overcrowding and overworked problem.

What they came up with was Liberty Landing, a mile-long and half-mile-wide facility that nearly bumped into the Statue of Liberty (and hence its name).  The plan called for backfilling the “flats” that were just south of Jersey City, as “the natural formation of these were very favorable”, which meant that the airport-port combo would extend all the way into the harbor to the edge of the channel, which would put it further out than the Statue of Liberty, which would also be just hundreds of feet away from the end of the north runway.

Also attached to the backfill and new land would be a one-mile-long floating dock.  Oh my!

The floating island would also have vehicular tunnels that connected it to Staten Island and the Battery.  There were facilities for seaplanes, airplanes, railroads, dirrigbles, and trucks, plus a military installation, a custom’s house and the US Mail Service, so that all commerce would converge at this one point, which sounds interesting (for about 20 seconds). 

This is a good candidate for the “Better Left Undone” award for 1935.

As I look at the photograph of the aerial view of the plan it strikes me that if the designers increased the surface area by only 125% or so they could’ve connected the new facility with Governor’s Island AND Brooklyn, building a land bridge from Jersey City to Coney Island—a superbly bad idea to cap an already strongly bad idea. 

The report is called, simply, Liberty Landing, and published by the architect in Jackson Heights, NYC, 16 September 1935.  This is also the U.S. Copyright Deposit copy (accepted 10 October 1935), which is where the history of this project ends.

I recently uncovered an interesting, unpublished and probably not-acceptable engineering report to extend the ports capacity in the Hudson River at New York City--the ports of the  area being famously over-busy for a long period of time, especially right before World War II.  Charles Palliser and Frederick W. Capon presented a proposal in 1935 for a unification of the port and airport facilities to take care of the overcrowding and overworked problem.

What they came up with was Liberty Landing, a mile-long and half-mile-wide facility that nearly bumped into the Statue of Liberty (and hence its name).  The plan called for backfilling the “flats” that were just south of Jersey City, as “the natural formation of these were very favorable”, which meant that the airport-port combo would extend all the way into the harbor to the edge of the channel, which would put it further out than the Statue of Liberty, which would also be just hundreds of feet away from the end of the north runway.

Also attached to the backfill and new land would be a one-mile-long floating dock.  Oh my!

The floating island would also have vehicular tunnels that connected it to Staten Island and the Battery.  There were facilities for seaplanes, airplanes, railroads, dirrigbles, and trucks, plus a military installation, a custom’s house and the US Mail Service, so that all commerce would converge at this one point, which sounds interesting (for about 20 seconds). 

This is a good candidate for the “Better Left Undone” award for 1935.

As I look at the photograph of the aerial view of the plan it strikes me that if the designers increased the surface area by only 125% or so they could’ve connected the new facility with Governor’s Island AND Brooklyn, building a land bridge from Jersey City to Coney Island—a superbly bad idea to cap an already strongly bad idea. 

The report is called, simply, Liberty Landing, and published by the architect in Jackson Heights, NYC, 16 September 1935.  This is also the U.S. Copyright Deposit copy (accepted 10 October 1935), which is where the history of this project ends.

I recently uncovered an interesting, unpublished and probably not-acceptable engineering report to extend the ports capacity in the Hudson River at New York City--the ports of the  area being famously over-busy for a long period of time, especially right before World War II.  Charles Palliser and Frederick W. Capon presented a proposal in 1935 for a unification of the port and airport facilities to take care of the overcrowding and overworked problem.

What they came up with was Liberty Landing, a mile-long and half-mile-wide facility that nearly bumped into the Statue of Liberty (and hence its name).  The plan called for backfilling the “flats” that were just south of Jersey City, as “the natural formation of these were very favorable”, which meant that the airport-port combo would extend all the way into the harbor to the edge of the channel, which would put it further out than the Statue of Liberty, which would also be just hundreds of feet away from the end of the north runway.

Also attached to the backfill and new land would be a one-mile-long floating dock.  Oh my!

The floating island would also have vehicular tunnels that connected it to Staten Island and the Battery.  There were facilities for seaplanes, airplanes, railroads, dirrigbles, and trucks, plus a military installation, a custom’s house and the US Mail Service, so that all commerce would converge at this one point, which sounds interesting (for about 20 seconds). 

This is a good candidate for the “Better Left Undone” award for 1935.

As I look at the photograph of the aerial view of the plan it strikes me that if the designers increased the surface area by only 125% or so they could’ve connected the new facility with Governor’s Island AND Brooklyn, building a land bridge from Jersey City to Coney Island—a superbly bad idea to cap an already strongly bad idea. 

The report is called, simply, Liberty Landing, and published by the architect in Jackson Heights, NYC, 16 September 1935.  This is also the U.S. Copyright Deposit copy (accepted 10 October 1935), which is where the history of this project ends.

I recently uncovered an interesting, unpublished and probably not-acceptable engineering report to extend the ports capacity in the Hudson River at New York City--the ports of the  area being famously over-busy for a long period of time, especially right before World War II.  Charles Palliser and Frederick W. Capon presented a proposal in 1935 for a unification of the port and airport facilities to take care of the overcrowding and overworked problem.

What they came up with was Liberty Landing, a mile-long and half-mile-wide facility that nearly bumped into the Statue of Liberty (and hence its name).  The plan called for backfilling the “flats” that were just south of Jersey City, as “the natural formation of these were very favorable”, which meant that the airport-port combo would extend all the way into the harbor to the edge of the channel, which would put it further out than the Statue of Liberty, which would also be just hundreds of feet away from the end of the north runway.

Also attached to the backfill and new land would be a one-mile-long floating dock.  Oh my!

The floating island would also have vehicular tunnels that connected it to Staten Island and the Battery.  There were facilities for seaplanes, airplanes, railroads, dirrigbles, and trucks, plus a military installation, a custom’s house and the US Mail Service, so that all commerce would converge at this one point, which sounds interesting (for about 20 seconds). 

This is a good candidate for the “Better Left Undone” award for 1935.

As I look at the photograph of the aerial view of the plan it strikes me that if the designers increased the surface area by only 125% or so they could’ve connected the new facility with Governor’s Island AND Brooklyn, building a land bridge from Jersey City to Coney Island—a superbly bad idea to cap an already strongly bad idea. 

The report is called, simply, Liberty Landing, and published by the architect in Jackson Heights, NYC, 16 September 1935.  This is also the U.S. Copyright Deposit copy (accepted 10 October 1935), which is where the history of this project ends.

I recently uncovered an interesting, unpublished and probably not-acceptable engineering report to extend the ports capacity in the Hudson River at New York City--the ports of the  area being famously over-busy for a long period of time, especially right before World War II.  Charles Palliser and Frederick W. Capon presented a proposal in 1935 for a unification of the port and airport facilities to take care of the overcrowding and overworked problem.

What they came up with was Liberty Landing, a mile-long and half-mile-wide facility that nearly bumped into the Statue of Liberty (and hence its name).  The plan called for backfilling the “flats” that were just south of Jersey City, as “the natural formation of these were very favorable”, which meant that the airport-port combo would extend all the way into the harbor to the edge of the channel, which would put it further out than the Statue of Liberty, which would also be just hundreds of feet away from the end of the north runway.

Also attached to the backfill and new land would be a one-mile-long floating dock.  Oh my!

The floating island would also have vehicular tunnels that connected it to Staten Island and the Battery.  There were facilities for seaplanes, airplanes, railroads, dirrigbles, and trucks, plus a military installation, a custom’s house and the US Mail Service, so that all commerce would converge at this one point, which sounds interesting (for about 20 seconds). 

This is a good candidate for the “Better Left Undone” award for 1935.

As I look at the photograph of the aerial view of the plan it strikes me that if the designers increased the surface area by only 125% or so they could’ve connected the new facility with Governor’s Island AND Brooklyn, building a land bridge from Jersey City to Coney Island—a superbly bad idea to cap an already strongly bad idea. 

The report is called, simply, Liberty Landing, and published by the architect in Jackson Heights, NYC, 16 September 1935.  This is also the U.S. Copyright Deposit copy (accepted 10 October 1935), which is where the history of this project ends.

I recently uncovered an interesting, unpublished and probably not-acceptable engineering report to extend the ports capacity in the Hudson River at New York City--the ports of the  area being famously over-busy for a long period of time, especially right before World War II.  Charles Palliser and Frederick W. Capon presented a proposal in 1935 for a unification of the port and airport facilities to take care of the overcrowding and overworked problem.

What they came up with was Liberty Landing, a mile-long and half-mile-wide facility that nearly bumped into the Statue of Liberty (and hence its name).  The plan called for backfilling the “flats” that were just south of Jersey City, as “the natural formation of these were very favorable”, which meant that the airport-port combo would extend all the way into the harbor to the edge of the channel, which would put it further out than the Statue of Liberty, which would also be just hundreds of feet away from the end of the north runway.

Also attached to the backfill and new land would be a one-mile-long floating dock.  Oh my!

The floating island would also have vehicular tunnels that connected it to Staten Island and the Battery.  There were facilities for seaplanes, airplanes, railroads, dirrigbles, and trucks, plus a military installation, a custom’s house and the US Mail Service, so that all commerce would converge at this one point, which sounds interesting (for about 20 seconds). 

This is a good candidate for the “Better Left Undone” award for 1935.

As I look at the photograph of the aerial view of the plan it strikes me that if the designers increased the surface area by only 125% or so they could’ve connected the new facility with Governor’s Island AND Brooklyn, building a land bridge from Jersey City to Coney Island—a superbly bad idea to cap an already strongly bad idea. 

The report is called, simply, Liberty Landing, and published by the architect in Jackson Heights, NYC, 16 September 1935.  This is also the U.S. Copyright Deposit copy (accepted 10 October 1935), which is where the history of this project ends.

When Cottages Have (a Suite) of Maids' Quarters (1937)

Hodgson Prefabricated Houses. E.F. Hodgson & Company, 1937. 12x9.5”, 48pp. Illustrated throughout with photos and plans. Fine copy. Published with a heavy wrapper with an embossed title, and printed on a glossy heavy paper. $135

These are “prefabricated” structures in a sense that we wouldn't much identify today—these are impressive structures. Some are labeled as “cottages” some of which are, again,not what we'd call a “cottage” unless were referred to them in an independently wealthy way...at least I wouldn't call anything a “cottage” that was designed with multiple bedrooms for maids. So these may have been a cottage for someone with a Substantial Home in Greenwich or if they were Mrs. Bucket looking for a getaway place in a tiny suite in a grand home in the countryside. That said, there are some bona fide “small houses” (or “camp houses”) offered for sale by Hodgson in addition to garages (along with garages with chauffeur's quarters), workshops, doghouses, tonic stands, schools, “play and guest houses”, and other related bits. There are also a few pages devoted to doors, floors, and fittings.

 

"The Light that Never Fails"

Thomas Spees Carrington, Directions for Living and Sleeping in the Open Air. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., 1913 9x6", 24pp., many photos.  Original wrappers.  Nice copy of a sweet little pamphlet about the benefits of sleeping outside, from the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.  $75

"The light that never fails", a slogan used by the company for decades and one that we see on the front cover of the pamphlet, was an actual light at the top of the tower, and was "one of a few broadly visible features of the New York City nighttime skyline until the mid-20th century".  

"The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower, colloquially known as the Met Life Tower, is a landmark skyscraper, built in 1909 and located on Madison Avenue near the intersection with East 23rd Street, across from Madison Square Park in Manhattan, New York City. Designed by the architectural firm of Napoleon LeBrun & Sons and built by the Hedden Construction Company, the tower is modeled after the Campanile in Venice, Italy. The tower was a later addition to the original 11-story, full-block Metropolitan Life Home Office building (the "East Wing"), which was completed in 1893 and was also designed by Napoleon LeBrun & Sons. Plans for the tower were first announced in June, 1905.  In 1953-57, the original Home Office building was replaced with the current building, designed by D. Everett Waid. Then, between 1960 and 1964, the Tower itself was modernized by Lloyd Morgan and Eugene V. Meroni."

"The building figured prominently in the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company's advertising for many years, illustrated with a light beaming from the top of its spire and the slogan, "The Light That Never Fails." The reference was to a beacon at the top of the tower which flashed once at the quarter hour and the time of day at the hour. The beacon was one of a few broadly visible features of the New York City nighttime skyline until the mid-20th century."--Wikipedia

A Moving Sidewalk, NYC, 1903

Transportation of passengers in Greater New York by continuous railway train, or moving platforms. Argument in favor of equipping the East River bridges, and connecting subway to Bowling-Green, Manhattan, with moving platforms, prepared for Schmidt & Gallatin. New York, 1903. (No indication of publisher.)

9"x 6”, 20pp, plus 4 folding plates (including a map).

Original wrappers. Condition: the original wrappers are chipped and detached. The text however is clean and bright. Overall, this is probably a GOOD copy (only), probably a 5 out of 10 ("10" being "new").  Only six copies located in WorldCat (Henry Ford, Yale, U Chicago, NYHS, NYPL, Columbia). 

Provenance: US Customs House (NYC, Herman Melville retiring from there in 1885 btw) with their tiny rubber stamp barely visible on the front wrapper; Library of Congress (with their rubber stamp on rear cover, which probably resulted in the wrappers detaching).  $250

 

 

This seems a wonderful example of future thinking and city planning--but just not a very good idea.  It is hard to imagine a continuously moving sidewalk functioning in lower Manhattan. 

From the pamphlet: 

"Moving Platforms for the conveyance of passengers were recommended by Mr. Horace Greeley thirty years ago. They were successfully operated, first, at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, where 2,700,000 people were transported. In 1896 they were installed at the Berlin Exposition, and again at the Paris Exposition of 1900, where they carried over eight million passengers. Few persons know what Moving Platforms are. From the face that sometimes they are called " Moving Side- walks," it is believed that they must be some sort of a pavement on rollers, on which it is difficult to step with safety and maintain equilibrium. The Moving Platforms are to all intents a railway, operated like other railways, propelled by electricity, with cars, seats, motors, passenger stations, ticket booths, guards, electric lights — in fact, everything belonging to a first-class railway." 

"Where it differs from the ordinary railway is that the cars, or trains, are not running at intervals, but are coupled up continuously, so that there is no interruption of traffic at any time, but a large seating capacity at all times. It differs also in the construction of the cars, which are mere flat cars, provided with seats placed crosswise, and so arranged that all passengers face in the direction of motion. Each of these seats may be made wide enough to accommodate one, two or more persons. The most approved plan is to provide seats on one side of the cars only and leave the other for passengers to walk, thus giving them an opportunity to further accelerate their speed if they so desire..."